Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
placeholder article
placeholder article

How To Make a New Year’s Resolution Stick

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Williams chapter.

Every year we all come together to celebrate a New Year by following many different New Year’s traditions.The one New Year’s tradition that so many of us have in common is the making and breaking of New Year’s Resolutions. This year I decided that I didn’t want to just make a New Year’s resolution, but also keep it. Here’s how I managed my resolution in a way that will hopefully stick!

I think that the first mistake we make with our resolutions, is that we make them too general. The second mistake is that they aren’t set in stone. First I opened a word document and documented my whole process. I just think that when it’s written it’s more likely to happen.Then I split my life into three categories: Body, Soul, and Mind. In the Body section, I first asked myself, what is one word that I want to be able to describe my body as at the end of the year. My word was confident. This word shouldn’t be a word to describe you based on what you want people to see but what you would want to see in yourself. Once my word was chosen, I  made a list of ways I can give my body the most confident look. Some of my things ranged from drinking 8 cups of water a day to a DIY facial mask once a week.

In the mind category I did a similar thing. This time I chose what would be best for my mind in a physical and psychological sense. You should choose options that will correspond with the mind’s intellectual growth. I asked myself, what are my best options to remain sane? My list ranged from reading 10 pages a day before I go to bed to calling a friend or family back home every other day. Better yet, if you make your resolution really specific and decide instead you want to read 10 pages a day of a genre you’ve never tried, where you can learn something new, you’re more likely to stick with it.

The last category was Soul. For the Soul, I chose things that I love to do that make me genuinely happy. This category was kind of like my miscellaneous category. It could involve things from body or mind, but it just had to make me happy. So for instance, I like makeup. One of the things on my soul list were to watch makeup videos every week and try a new look.

I think that the nice thing about these types of resolutions is that you can choose at any  time to only follow one category or one thing from each category and still feel like you have achieved some sort of change.

Hi, my name is Crissy and I am from New York City! I am the campus correspondent for this year's cohort of empowered females and I am extremely excited to work with new people. I wouldn't call myself an experienced writer, but I do enjoy writing for this online platform. Hopefully, you will enjoy our pieces too!
Nica is a Senior at Williams College majoring in Biology and taking pre-medical courses. She is a member of Ritmo Latino and GQ A cappella. Her passions include public health, reading, and yoga.